AFGE Testifies Before Senate VA Committee on Performance Variations Between VA Benefits Offices

Veterans Affairs Employee Union Urges Better Training, Performance Measures

WASHINGTON, June 2, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, the American Federation of Government Employees' National VA Council testified before the House Committee on Veterans Affairs at a hearing dedicated to the review of performance levels at Veterans Benefits Administration's Regional Offices.  AFGE's National Veterans Affairs Council represents 196,000 frontline employees in the Department of Veterans Affairs, and is the exclusive representative of employees who process disability claims.

The testimony was delivered by James R. Swartz Jr., a Decision Review Officer at the VBA Regional Office in Cleveland, OH and President of AFGE Local 2823. In testimony, AFGE and NVAC focused on three areas in need of improvement: (1) Training of new hires and continuing education; (2) Supervision; (3) VBA's work credit system and its impact on agency performance measures, quality of claims decisions, and workplace morale.  

"AFGE's members have valuable insights into the claims process but VBA continues to exclude us from a meaningful role in efforts to improve training, skills certification and performance measures. We do not have any direct involvement in the Veterans Benefit Management System (VBMS) nationally or locally to date," stated Swartz. 

While AFGE members have been directly involved in some of the current VBA pilot programs to enhance the claims process, members have had minimal or no input in others. "There are no quick fixes to the claims process. We share the view of veterans' groups who cautioned against new pilot projects that would restructure VBA's workflow based on questionable labels such as "underperforming." "It would be more productive to allow VBA to complete current pilot projects," stated Swartz.  

 "VBA training continues to be left too much to the discretion of RO managers preoccupied with 'making the numbers' at all costs," continued Swartz.  "New hires are rushed into production. Current employees do not receive all of the required 85 hours of yearly training and due to inexperienced trainers, the quality of VBA training has suffered.  

"New hires need supervision and mentoring from experienced managers with sufficient expertise. RO managers also are responsible for conducting quality assurance and managing the workflow without sacrificing accuracy. Too many VBA managers have been promoted after only a few years of hands-on experience."  In addition, "VBA has still not complied with the requirement in Public Law 110-389, enacted three years ago, to improve the quality of supervisor through supervisor skills certification exams," stated Swartz.

Public Law 110-389 also mandated that VBA develop an evidence-based work credit system to ensure that performance measures count all work that goes into getting a claim processed correctly the first time, including full claims development. Swartz urged the VBA to expedite development of these critical measures.

In further testimony, AFGE and NVAC renewed their call for the VBA to eliminate excessive bonuses for VBA managers, and to consider the true costs of mandatory overtime.   "AFGE is committed to working with Congress, the VA, and other stakeholders in the veterans' service community to ensure that veterans' claims are processed in a timely and accurate manner," stated NVAC President Alma Lee.

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is the largest federal employee union, representing 625,000 workers in the federal government and the government of the District of Columbia.

SOURCE American Federation of Government Employees